Wouter1981

I live in a bortle 6 sky and the only galaxy I can find is M31. There is just to much light pollution and I have a (almost impossible to dodge) streetlight shining up my garden. I tried M81, M33, M101,... I recognize the starpaterns so I know I'm looking at the right spot. I am wearing a hoody and try to shield my eyes as much as possible and still, no luck. I'm only using a 4inch refractor but the main problem is the light shining in my garden so I never get fully dark adapted eyes. But don't worry, much else to see. Planets, the moon, doubles, clusters....

Welcome fellow Belgian!

Nice setup, I use something rather similar: Skywatcher 102 f5 AZt6 from TS optics which is the same as your Altair astra mount Baader zoom +barlow Maxvision 34mm 68° 2 inch diagonal reddot finder The weird part is that I almost bought a equinox 80 to replace my 102. Our setups would be almost identical! Great minds think alike ? Perhaps you should invest in the screw-on barlow for the baader zoom? It's really small, you can see it in my picture next to the red dot. You could have a magnification to 140x with just a little bit space lost.

Practicality is most important for me. I have a lot of light pollution and need to carry my telescope several times around the garden to dodge lights. And when I'm finished, I have to carry it inside over a small step. I can't imagine doing this with a 20 inch dobson, so for the moment I'm stuck with a 100mm refractor and a 15x70 binocular. I am looking at something bigger and I have the impression that a 8 to 10 inch dobson is the sweet spot between cost, size and weight. Especially the 8inch is remarkable portable for such a aperture! But I'm rather immune for aperture fever and my next scope will probably be a 150mm refractor, which is less practical than a 8 inch dobson, so I'm contradicting myself ;-) But try to see a 12 inch dobson in person. They are rather hefty pieces of equipment and a online picture just do them any justice.